Pannon Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra in Pécs, a regional center of science, arts, including music. The predecessor of the today's ensemble was founded in 1811 by György Lickl, a Viennese composer. The orchestra of Pécs, boasting over 200 years of history, has been going through a spectacular improvement for one and a half decades, making it a dominant orchestra and brand of the country. Since 2010, Pannon Philharmonic has been a resident orchestra of the Kodály Centre, a concert hall boasting the best acoustics in Hungary. The orchestra has not only met success in Pécs; they had a series of sold-out performances in Budapest at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall since the opening of the Müpa, and also performed in the most significant concert halls of European capitals from Zürich through Vienna to the Grand Concert Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. The Pannon Philharmonic has been invited to participate in the long-established Musik der Meister series of the Viennese Musikverein on 31 October. Of all Hungarian symphony orchestras, it is the Pannon Philharmonic under the baton of chief conductor Tibor Bogányi, who was first offered to participate in a concert series in this prestigious concert hall. After the European Capital of Culture and the Hungarian capital, the ensemble will take up the challenge on the stage of the capital of music. It is a true breakthrough in the history of Hungarian music that the Pécs-based orchestra will have the opportunity to perform in the Grand Hall of the Musikverein on six occasions altogether, within the framework of the long-standing Musik der Meister series between October 2021 and June 2023. As the director of the series pointed out, the groundwork of the invitation was the orchestra’s reliably high standard and quality, which is of primary significance for the cultivated and musically indulged Viennese audience.

The head of the orchestra is Zsolt Horváth, a trumpet artist and economist graduated from the Vienna Music Academy and the University of Pécs respectively, who has been leading the Pannon Philharmonic for one and a half decades. The director, 15 years ago, set up the possible cornerstones of development within Hungary, studying the operational elements and structural features and market operation of European top-class symphony orchestras, and implemented the project with a professional management in accordance with the conscious company building of the respective art managements. The number of tickets sold by the band has been increased by more than a hundred times as compared to the number of pre-renewal period and the number of season tickets sold is more than five times more than earlier, while the art and professional prestige of Pannon Philharmonic stand out with the biggest domestic orchestras.

Former chief conductors of our ensemble were Zsolt Hamar (2000-2009), Zoltán Peskó (2009-2011), Tibor Bogányi (2011-2023) and Gilbet Varga (2019-2021). The chief conductor of Pannon Philharmonic is Gergely Kesselyák. The orchestra has worked with András Vass as permanent conductor since 2009, the first permanent guest conductor of the orchestra is Tibor Bogányi. The first permanent guest conductor of the Pannon Philharmonic was the Musical Director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Zoltán Kocsis, who loved, nourished and esteemed the PFZ as his very own second ensemble for over a decade, until 2016.

The orchestra regularly works with the most prominent Hungarian artists, including Gergely Bogányi, Dezső Ránki, Miklós Perényi, István Várdai, Kristóf Baráti, Barnabás Kelemen, Erika Miklósa, Éva Marton, Gábor Tarkóvi, Péter Eötvös, Jenő Jandó, Dénes Várjon, György Vashegyi, Péter Frankl – for the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved. In addition to the independent concerts of the orchestra, Pannon Philharmonic has been regularly invited to the most important Hungarian festivals such as the Bartók Miskolc Plus Opera festival or the Budapest Spring Festival. For many years they have been a permanent partner of the Budapest Festival Orchestra Marathon series and one of the founders of the Armel Operafestival based on extensive international collaboration, where the orchestra have performed a number of award-winning productions.

The professional standards represented by Pannon Philharmonic and its Europaean-minded are management is confirmed by internationally renowned artists. The regular partners of the orchestra include such high-profile artists of the international music scene as Maxim Vengerov, Krzysztof Pendereczki, Leopold Hager, Mischa Maisky, Fazil Say, Roby Lakatos, Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Xavier de Maistre, Sharon Kam, Jonathan Cohen, Akiko Suwanai, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Andrej Gavrilov, Olari Elts, Gilbert Varga, Ivan Repusic, Riccardi Frizza, Dejan Lazić, and Nebojša Jovan Živković.

During their resident composer and soloist programs, they worked with such outstanding artists as Sándor Balassa, Levente Gyöngyösi, László Dubrovay, Gergely Bogányi, or Benjamin Schmid. The latter has made several CD recordings with the orchestra. Pannon Philharmonic is a regular co-production partner for Müpa, where they have performed with outstanding artists such as Jessica Pratt and Anja Harteros, and during the International Domingo Festival, they give joint summer concerts in Pécs with the opera singers of the New York Metropolitan Opera.

The orchestra offers events to people of all ages, from the babies to the elderly. It also attracts young people to its concerts by providing innovative projects to them, while its own Festival Choir also provides excellent performance worthy of international prizes in Baroque music. The orchestra, boasting excellent direct and personal relationship with its audience, is extremely popular in the capital as well, while it has also established fruitful collaborations with the major stakeholders, associations and institutions in the city of Pécs.

The orchestra was the Ambassador of Pécs 2010 in the European Capital of Culture programme. In the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in 2015, the ensemble was awarded with a special prize for their outstanding musical performance, while in 2016 they contributed to the opening performance of the award-winning Eötvös opera, and in 2017 they were involved in the staging of the winning performance of the People's Choice Award of the festival. In the autumn of 2017, the Pannon Philharmonic and the Festival Choir of the Orchestra were honoured for the most prestigious production of the 47th Baroque Evenings in Varaždin.

Réka Matuska

concertmaster

Réka Matuska

violinist, assistant concertmaster

Pannon Philharmonic

Artist of the Year 2024

Réka Matuska started playing the violin at age five at the Erkel Ferenc Music School in Cegléd. Her mother worked as a piano teacher in Nagykőrös and Százhalombatta. At the age of eleven, she was admitted to the preparatory school of Zoltán Kodály School of Music in Kecskemét, where she studied with Juniki Spartakus. After her A-level exams, she continued her studies as a violinist and teacher at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs in the class of Liszt Prize-winning violinist and professor Béla Bánfalvi. She gave her diploma concert in May 2011.

Réka has received excellence awards in many chamber music competitions. At the age of eighteen, she performed Sibelius's Violin Concerto several times with the Kecskemét Symphony Orchestra.

In 1998 and 2001, she participated in the National János Koncz Violin Competition and, 2005 the National Ferenc Halász Secondary School Violin Competition.

She played regularly at the masterclasses of István Kertész, András Kiss, Dénes Zsigmondy and Barnabás Kelemen. She was an active participant in Kristóf Baráti's masterclasses as well.

She was a permanent member of the Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra, with which she performed several times as a soloist in addition to numerous prestigious national and European concert performances (at her diploma concert, they accompanied her in Brahms ' Violin Concerto). She is a founding member of the Hungarian Chamber Orchestra, formed in the autumn of 2011 (with Béla Bánfalvi as concertmaster and Kristóf Baráti as Artistic Director). In the summer of 2012, she acted as the soloist of the ensemble, and her joint chamber concert with Kristóf Baráti was broadcast on the Hungarian Radio.

As a member of these orchestras, she has had the opportunity to work with several famous Hungarian and foreign soloists and conductors: Kristóf Baráti, Gábor Farkas, István Dénes, Béla Drahos, Lészlo Fenyő, László Kovács, Balázs Nemes, Miklós Perényi, Andrea Rost, Vilmos Szabadi, Balázs Szokolay, Gergely Vajda, István Várdai, Tamás Vásáry, Claudio Bohórquez, Masahiro Izaki, Jens Peter Maintz, Mischa Maisky, Reinhold Friedrich, Ruth Ziesak, Sascha Rozhdestvensky, Sergei Nakariakov, Stefan Vladar, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.

She regularly assisted the Szolnok Symphony Orchestra, the Óbuda Danubia Orchestra and the Hungarian Radio Orchestra.

She performed at chamber music concerts every month, which was a crucial step in her musical activity.

Since September 2021, she has been the deputy concertmaster of the Pannon Philharmonic (under Tibor Boganyi as chief conductor). She has performed with the orchestra as a soloist and member of various chamber formations. In addition to the concert series in Pécs, Budapest and Vienna, she is a recurring player in the orchestra's favourite chamber series, Artist Entrance, and the Fantastic Classics series addressing schoolchildren. She has spoken on local television channels on several occasions. As of 2024, she has been the acting concertmaster of the orchestra.

True to the tradition of the Pannon Philharmonic, at the end of each season, the orchestra selects the Orchestral Artist of the Year. This year, this prestigious recognition was won by Réka Matuska.

In the autumn of 2022, she was a founding member of the Philomela Quartet, founded by her colleagues, who play in the Pannon Philharmonic. They have given numerous concerts with the ensemble in Pécs and Komló

Reka is a mother of two children.